In transforming backward agricultural China into an advanced
industrialized country, we are confronted with arduous tasks and
our experience is far from adequate. So we must be good at
learning.

"Opening Address at the
Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China"
(September 15, 1956).

Conditions are changing all the time,
and to adapt one's thinking to the new conditions, one must
study. Even those who have a better grasp of Marxism and are
comparatively firm in their proletarian stand have to go on
studying, have to absorb what is new and study new
problems.

We can learn what we did not know. We
are not only good at destroying the Old World, we are also good at
building the new.

"Report to the Second
Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China" (March 5, 1949), Selected Works, Vol. IV,
p. 374.

Now, there are two different attitudes towards
learning from others. One is the dogmatic attitude of
transplanting everything, whether or not it is suited to our
conditions. This is no good. The other attitude is to use our
heads and learn those things that suit our conditions, that is, to
absorb whatever experience is useful to us. That is the attitude
we should adopt.

On the Correct Handling of
Contradictions among the People (February 27, 1957), 1st pocket
ed., p. 75.

The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is
universally applicable. We should regard it not as a dogma, but as
a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning
terms and phrases but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science
of revolution. It is not just a matter of understanding the
general laws derived by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin from their
extensive study of real life and revolutionary experience, but of
studying their standpoint and method in examining and solving
problems.

"The Role of the Chinese
Communist Party in the National War" (October 1938), Selected
Works, Vol. II, pp. 208-09.

If we have a correct theory but
merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into
practice, then that theory, however good, is of no
significance.

"On Practice" (July
1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 304.

It is necessary to
master Marxist theory and apply it, master it for the sole purpose
of applying it. If you can apply the Marxist-Leninist viewpoint in
elucidating one or two practical problems, you should be commended
and credited with some achievement. The more problems you
elucidate and the more comprehensively and profoundly you do so,
the greater will be your achievement.

How is
Marxist-Leninist theory to be linked with the practice of the
Chinese revolution? To use a common expression, it is by
"shooting the arrow at the target". As the arrow is to
the target, so is Marxism-Leninism to the Chinese revolution. Some
comrades, however, are "shooting without a target",
shooting at random, and such people are liable to harm the
revolution.

Ibid., p. 42.

Those
experienced in work must take up the study of theory and must read
seriously; only then will they be able to systematize and
synthesize their experience and raise it to the level of theory,
only then will they not mistake their partial experience for
universal truth and not commit empiricist errors.

Ibid.

Reading is learning, but applying is
also learning and the more important kind of learning at that. Our
chief method is to learn warfare through warfare. A person who has
had no opportunity to go to school can also learn warfare - he can
learn through fighting in war. A revolutionary war is a mass
undertaking; it is often not a matter of first learning and then
doing, but of doing and then learning, for doing is itself
learning.

There is a gap between the ordinary
civilian and the soldier, but it is no Great Wall, and it can be
quickly closed, and the way to close it is to take part in
revolution, in war. By saying that it is not easy to learn and to
apply, we mean that it is hard to learn thoroughly and to apply
skillfully. By saying that civilians can very quickly become
soldiers, we mean that it is not difficult to cross the
threshold. To put the two statements together, we may cite the
Chinese adage, "Nothing in the world is difficult for one who
sets his mind to it." To cross the threshold is not
difficult, and mastery, too, is possible provided one sets one's
mind to the task and is good at learning.

Ibid., p. 190.

We must learn to do economic
work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem
them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and
conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not
know.

Knowledge is a matter of science and no dishonesty
or conceit whatsoever is permissible. What is required is
definitely the reverse - honesty and modesty.

"On Practice" (July 1937), Selected
Works, Vol. I, p. 300.

Complacency is the enemy of study. We
cannot really learn anything until we rid ourselves of
complacency. Our attitude towards ourselves should be "to be
insatiable in learning" and towards others "to be
tireless in teaching".

"The Role
of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (October
1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 210.

Some people have
read a few Marxist books and think themselves quite learned but
what they have read has not penetrated, has not struck root in
their minds, so that they do not know how to use it and their
class feelings remain as of old. Others are very conceited and
having learned some book-phrases, think them terrific and are very
cocky; but whenever a storm blows up, they take a stand very
different from that of the workers and the majority of the
peasants. They waver while the latter stand firm, they equivocate
while the latter are forthright.

In order to
have a real grasp of Marxism, one must learn it not only from
books, but mainly through class struggle, through practical work
and close contact with the masses of workers and peasants. When in
addition to reading some Marxist books our intellectuals have
gained some understanding through close contact with the masses of
workers and peasants and through their own practical work, we will
all be speaking the same language, not only the common language of
patriotism and the common language of the socialist system, but
probably even the common language of the communist world
outlook. If that happens, all of us will certainly work much
better.